Acer Iconia Tab A700 With HD 1080p Display Review

Article Index

Performance Summary and Final Thoughts

If you've been envying your Apple iPad-toting friends with their high-res Retina displays, but are a die-hard Android user, the A700 presents an interesting alternative that's worth considering. In addition to its display which supports a higher resolution than we've seen on most Android tablets to date, the A700 also offers plenty of onboard storage (32GB) as well as a microSD card slot and micro HDMI connectivity.

As our performance tests have shown though, the A700's high resolution display holds back performance in a few tests, due to its more demanding fillrate and memory bandwidth requirements. During real-world testing, we were mostly pleased with the tablet's responsiveness, but there were some instances where we felt it wasn't quite as zippy as it should have been. That said, the display on the A700 is really gorgeous. To many users, the better display found on the A700 might be worth taking a small hit in performance in graphically intensive apps. But take note, it may not feel as fast as other Tegra 3-based devices with lower resolutions displays.

Although more than seven and a half hours of battery life is nothing to frown upon, the A700's battery life is still shorter than what we've seen on some other tablets. We would have liked to have seen the A700 last longer in our standard HotHardware battery test, but in all truthfulness, the A700's longevity will likely be adequate for most users. It's also important to keep in mind that different activities and uses of the tablet will affect battery life.

In terms of screen resolution, the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity TF700T (1920x1200) and the latest Apple iPad (2048x1536) also offer very impressive displays. The Transformer Pad Infinity TF700T runs $499 for the 32GB model while the 32GB iPad runs $599. While the Acer Iconia Tab A700's $449.99 price is competitive compared to these tablets, the performance improvements offered by these other tablets will likely make them more compelling, especially given the small price difference between the A700 and the Transformer Pad Infinity TF700T.

All in all, we enjoyed our time with the Acer Iconia Tab A700. Although it's not a tablet that really stands out in terms of performance, it still offered a very enjoyable user experience.

1920x1200 display

micro HDMI port

An upgrade to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean should be available in a month or so